- Hi guys, can you tell us all a little bit about yourselves before becoming a country music group?
We are three brothers born in Essex county England Nate Lead vocals and drums , Mark lead vocals & guitar ,Kieran Bass lead vocals and guitars.
It started when Our middle brother mark Won “ guitarist of the year “ back in 1996 when he was 11 years old in front of a crowd of thousands watching along with legendary guitar players such as Brian May , Steve Vai , Eric Clapton & Jan cryka
Not long after we ended up getting a record deal to where we were on tour with such acts as back street boys , Britney Spears , spice girls , Westlife , 911 and many more in 1998 to 2000. Our single was a song called “ 24 hours from you “ which we had a top 20 hit in the UK and a top 5 in Asia. Due to very bad managment we ended up as a casualty of the music industry, but that’s another story.
- How did you come up with “Essex County,” for the name of your group and was there anything else you were going to choose instead?
Well we were in a sushi restaurant in Nashville with producer Ron Fair and Rob Beckham to where we had a discussion about the name and what we were gonna be called We had to
move on from the name “ Next of kin “ as there was another band by the same name in the USA
Ron asked “ where do you live in England ? “ I replied and said “ Essex county “ he said “ well that’s your name and it stuck haha
- What is the background story behind your new single “Next to Me?’
Well steve dorff is a long time friend we met in Los angeles in 2011 and we spent a lot of time writing and recording music Andrew dorff his son was a prolific writer and had so many great songs we just wanted to sing and perform When Andrew passed a few years back we just thought it we would honour him by releasing this song Steve dorff produced it. So it’s like a family effort It’s heart warming.
- How would you all describe your music in 3 to 5 words? If Bryan Adams , Eagles and def leopard & richard Marx’s had a baby I think that would be us guys
- Be What are a few of your favorite venues to play at?
We’ve played the Ryman auditorium in nashville amazing venue , Franklin theatre in Tennessee outstanding place , Bridgestone arena Nashville , Wembley stadium London unforgettable, most arenas up and down the UK. But there’s a great Restuarant in nashville that has live music called pucketts. Possibly might beat most of these arenas haha
- Who are some of your musical icons?
John Mayer , richard Marx’s , the Eagles , whitesnake , the weekend , randy travis , chris young , Brad paisley , restless heart , james taylor , Free , Bruce Hornsby, toto , Jordan Davis
- What made you all want a career in country music?
When you strip away the big guitars and drums and production everyone always says we are soo country in style And wE LOVE performing acoustically, it just shows our raw ability and you can’t hide behind anything it’s you a guitar and a mic And that’s fundamentally what country music is about.
- What is your recording process like when creating and making new music?
Well when you’ve got a well crafted song it’s much easier , we go into rehearsals and just play it over and over even take it out to gigs play it iron it’s out find out what’s missing and then lay those parts down in the studio and then listen back and add additional parts where you think it needs something else
- What are a few of your favorite quotes?
Success is the best revenge – if you knew our entire life story you’d know why this our favourite quote
- Is there anything else you all would like to share?
Please keep an eye out on all our socials as we have some exciting news coming up in the next couple of weeks and please join us on our journey as we’re heading back to nashville very soon too so this latest news might be the last gig we have e in the uk for a moment till we’re back so keep watching
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